Asheville Citizen Times Reporter is Confident That Catching Fire “won’t light up WNC”
Whilst casting has been at the forefront of most of our minds, there has also been the issue of where ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is going to be filmed. There have been rumours abound regarding this, with Atlanta, Hawaii and a return to North Carolina all being mentioned.
Carol Motsinger, a reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, however, is confident production for ‘Catching Fire’ won’t set foot in NC:
I’ve recently heard from the North Carolina Film Commission that they are not aware of any immediate plans for “Catching Fire” to be filmed anywhere in the Tarheel state. That could change, of course, but the September start date will be coming soon.
I don’t, however, have to wait [sic] hear back from industry insiders to confirm that the needs of “Catching Fire” do not necessarily include WNC.
Read on as Motsinger describes why a return is unlikely..
The “Hunger Games” scenes shot in the Asheville area were all related to the first games arena: The lush forests of Dupont State Park in Brevard provided the creeks and trees described in the book. North Fork Reservoir in Black Mountain stood in for the arena’s lake. The Coleman Boundary provided some of those mountain views from the main characters’ hometown of District 12 (described in the book as Appalachia).
District 12 (which was filmed near Charlotte in Hildebran) is the only repeat setting in “Catching Fire.” But the District 12 of “Catching Fire” is different than the one we were introduced to in the first book: Now, Katniss and Peeta live in the champion section of the district. It’s a whole new comfortable world for our duo. And it’s a world that can be built in Atlanta. And they can easily add in some fake mountains with some movie magic (which, by the way, they totally already did with the District 12 Hildrebran-shot scenes. No sky and peaks on this planet looks like that).
Keep in mind the above is still speculation, albeit well-reasoned, and we do not have any more concrete information at this stage. Do you think that ‘Catching Fire’ could easily be re-created elsewhere? There are still costumes, props etc in storage in NC, and what about the Henry River Mill village? We will just have to wait and see!
Source: Asheville Citizen Times
I had already heard this months ago, that Atlanta would more than likely be the filming location, as well as other locations in Georgia.
Whilst I’m confident they can re-create things like the training centre (which was shot inside an old warehouse) and relocate props, costumes etc, I have to wonder about some of the other filming locations in NC.
What happens at the Reaping for the Quarter Quell? (unless they cover it with snow, although I believe it had finished snowing by reaping day) And I would like to see District 12 again, for instance Peeta at the bakery, though it’s likely that pretty much everything will just take place in the Victors Village.
It’s another process I’m going to have to have faith in, hopefully a lot of the same set designers etc are back and can continue on with the same looks and styling, and that we get some really great sets outside of the arena as well as in it (which I hope does turn out to be in Hawaii)
I was hoping they’d return to NC because I didn’t want D12 to look any different. They can do what they want though. I’m sure they’ll find a great location
@Misty Haines – A lot of the initial rumours have quietly gone away, and I don’t blame Lionsgate for wanting to keep a lid on filming locations. So whilst, yes, we have technically known that this was probably going to be the case a while ago, it’s only now as we get closer to filming that some more reports are starting to surface.
@tash– the hunger games, and as such the reapings, always happen in the summer. i don’t think they’ll “shift” the reapings to winter; i’m guessing they’re just going to gloss over the D12 reaping– they can just have peeta mention that he’s going to volunteer for haymitch or something. the only other scene where we see the town square is gale’s whipping, and we don’t really need a wide view of that (in fact, shooting it from close-up might make it grittier), so they can just film that somewhere else.
they have a point in that most of the scenes filmed in NC were arena scenes, but there were also the forest scenes at the beginning. i’m guessing, if they’re moving all of the capitol scenes to atlanta (or wherever they go), that there probably won’t be any forest scenes in the movie– and that’s pretty much confirmation of no bonnie and twill, too.
@carla It’s not like there are only forests in North Carolina…
@carla – Thanks for confirming about the reapings for me
And that is also true about the whipping, I hadn’t really thought of it from that perspective. I guess too we never actually saw The Hob (only the interior) in THG, so they could quite easily show any building reduced to rubble, if they do at all. So really then it is quite easy to reproduce D12 elsewhere. Movie magic indeed!
Aw, I live in NC
Good point, Crystal. North Georgia has forests that are part of the Appalachian-Blue Ridge Mountain chain of wilderness areas
They need to film in WEST VIRGINIA where coal is really made!
I was thinking NC, but Hawaii would be great too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@crystal– hahaha, well, i don’t know, i’m not from the US.
when i’ve been there i’ve only been in cities/towns, so i wouldn’t know if there’s a significant difference between forests in NC and elsewhere. from the last movie, all the reviews i’ve read seemed to recognize D12 as “appalachia” so i figure SOMETHING in the scenery must’ve given that away even though it just looked like mountains and trees to me. and vegetation can vary; i mean i know in hawaii it’s more jungle than forest, which is why they’re (probably) taking the arena scenes there…
I feel bad for NC, but I admit I’m happy because I live in Atlanta – although I won’t be in Atlanta when they film …
Speaking of which, does anyone know whether they are keeping the same design team? Or is that going to change aswell?
Awwwww man. I regret every day not signing up to be an extra for The Hunger Games (I had never been an extra before, so I wasn’t real sure how the process went. It’s terrible that fear kept me from doing something amazing.). It honestly makes me sick to my stomach. I was hoping that they’d come back for “Catching Fire” so that I would finally be able to sign up. I only live a few hours away in NC. I was already a little sad because they would only be here for a couple of scenes, but now I am really upset that they are possibly not going to be here at all.
Re the reaping and Gale whipping scenes; I think that for the reaping scene, I could see them just using the “Justice Building” backdrop which could be based on old footage and/or CGI. Is that called the “blue scene” or “green scene” technique these days? Whatever the name is, it would be a similar technique to how they set up the background for the Tribute Parade.
I think this would work because then we don’t have to see large-scale depictions of the entire square filled with kids, because unlike the setup for the first movie, only Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch are in the pool to be reaped.
Same for the Gale whipping scene. They could have it happen right in front of the Justice Building, and use close-up or medium-distance shots, not show the whole square.
As for the forest scenes…carla, I understand why you’d make the assumption that moving out of NC means dropping forest scenes. There are so many jokes about how Americans are bad at geography, we shouldn’t expect people from other countries to know details about American geography. Even within the US, there are stereotypes about certain states such as NY and NJ being mostly urban/suburban, though NY’s Adirondack national park is actually larger than Yellowstone, and Western NJ has many forested areas, too. I think Georgia has enough areas of forest that they can find areas that are close enough to thg scenes.
@satsuma- yeah, it’s called green screen.
i would be very sad if they moved it to a dirrernt location why wouldent they shoot in NC i thought it was a perfect location they have a beach there they have the regular district 12 and much more there where they could film this movie cuse i want to visit there when there filming so georgia would be be even further from VA cause we were already planning for so i hope they change their minds cause half of yall would rather it be in NC anyways so they should just do it there and i hope they see these comments espesially this one
i would be very sad if they did not film the movie in NC why wouldent they they have beaches the regular disrict 12 and much more that would be perfect for the movie. i was planning to come to NC when they were filming so if it is in georgia that is even further away from VA and probly wouldent make the trip bt anyways half the people who commented or heard about this are probly upset including me so i hope they see all these comments especiallyy mine
and i know they dont care where im at and what trip i was making but just saying
I personally want them to film in NC, but that’s just me. Hawaii would be okay too I guess. But NC is better. And I you guys thought that they did a bad job casting prim say I.